Is He Coming With the Clouds?

“BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”Revelation 1:7

To continue this Walk Through Revelation (Click for past posts) I wanted to dig into this verse. This passage to me is an anchor in Revelation. HE IS COMING! The man Jesus, the One that we are all longing for is going to appear for all to see. The book of Revelation is wrapped up in this Man and we are given the hope that HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS!

Or is He?

Until recently I did not know that there was another interpretation of this passage. I had just read a book about it and then had someone tell me, in a very matter of fact way, that this has already happened. Apparently it all took place in 70 A.D. when the Jerusalem temple was destroyed and it is obvious that the word ‘clouds’ simply means judgment. I try not to let other peoples viewpoints cause a reaction from me, but that interpretation completely wipes out the importance of the Book of Revelation as well as the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I guess it all comes down to, has this happened or not?

There are two main Old Testament references to this passage and they are both “end-time” prophecies.

1. “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” Daniel 7:13

What Daniel saw in his vision was unthinkable, but it was real. This heavenly encounter did not reveal the judgment of God, it revealed the glory and splendor of Jesus, the Son of Man, coming before the Ancient of Days and receiving His full inheritance. Daniel saw a physical Man (Jesus) on tangible ‘Clouds of Heaven’; He was not riding on a metaphor that means judgment! To get Revelation 1:7 you must understand this vision that Daniel saw and you need to know that it speaks of a time when, “The court will sit for judgment, and his (satan) dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him” (Daniel 7:26-27). Another note, if Jesus could walk on water while on earth in His un-resurrected body, how much more could He ride on the clouds in His glorious resurrected body?

2. “So that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” Zechariah 12:10

The context of Zechariah 12 all the way to the end of 14 are set in a day that is yet to come, in that day, a day when, “The Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.” (14:9). To my knowledge this has not happened yet! Zechariah is prophesying about a day when the LORD will destroy ALL the nations that come against Jerusalem (12:9), not that day in 70 A.D. when Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. He is talking about a day when Christ returns to Earth and every eye will see Him! Well, what does that really mean? It means that every eye will see Him and it does not mean that this will be a televised event, unless you think God needs Bill Gates and Direct TV to help with His glorious return.

I find this passage in Revelation to be very important to every believer and non-believer for that matter. If this is an actual future event then what does that mean for us today? It means that we have a Man (Jesus) that has approached the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and this ‘Son of Man’ (Jesus) will return with the clouds of heaven with the fullness of His inheritance. If this is a past event, how it will cause us to read the rest of the book? If this has already happened then I would say the rest of the book has no real relevance to our lives.

Here are some other Old Testament scriptures that ‘hint’ that the LORD moves in the clouds.

• “The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way.”Ex 13:21
• “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud.” Ex 19:9
• “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.”Ex 34:5
• “For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.”Lev 16:2
• “He makes the clouds His chariot.”Psalm 104:3

Here are a few questions to ponder:

Does this verse sound impossible? Does it sound like a metaphor? Does it sound like something Jesus would do?

Next post I will address the New Testament scriptures that are linked to this verse. In the meantime let me know what you think. And if you want an extra blessing, read the book of Revelation for yourself.